In The News

Many congratulations to York College stonemasonry student Sam Turner on winning the Bronze medal in the Architectural Stonemasonry category at the biggest vocational education and skills excellence event in the world, WorldSkills 2015 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Over the four day competition in Brazil Sam worked tirelessly for 22 hours to complete a piece of stonemasonry, including making the templates, working the stone and completing lettering and carving, to finally be judged third in the world for his excellent stonemasonry skills.

Sam, 20 from Leeds, is an apprentice at York Minster. Having completed his Level 3 NVQ and Diploma in banker masonry at York College he has a further year to complete his apprenticeship. Sam was selected to represent Team UK in Architectural Stonemasonry having excelled in the regional and national rounds of the UKSkills competition. Sam has spent many hours training in preparation for the World Skills 2015 competition under the supervision of UK WorldSkills Trainer Kevin Calpin, a former York College stonemasonry tutor.

Kevin Clancy, Head of Division for Construction at York College said: “We are so very proud of Sam’s achievements at the WorldSkills competition in Brazil. We have all been following his progress from the very start of his selection to the competition. He has worked tremendously hard in the stonemasonry workshops here at College and in his apprenticeship at York Minster and he thoroughly deserves this accolade. To be selected for WorldSkills is impressive enough and to then come home with a medal is absolutely outstanding. Everyone at York College is delighted for him, he is a fantastic role model for our students. Certainly Sam will be the main topic of conversation when we welcome students to our brand new Construction Skills Centre next month.”